I finally caught up with Takashi Yamazaki’s “Godzilla Minus One” and it does work as an old-school action movie. I’m not as wowed as others were — there are some issues with the story and characters — but it has some really thrilling sequences involving the monster.
This is the 37th film in the franchise, and Toho's 33rd Godzilla film. Recently, Guillermo del Toro gushed all over “Godzilla Minus One,” writing that it’s one of the “Top 3 Godzilla films of all time (actually top two). Theatre-sized ambition and fulfillment. A Miracle.”
The film was made on a $15 million budget with a combination of practical effects and CGI. Hollywood could learn a thing or two from the Japanese VFX industry. I bet next year’s Warner Bros produced “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” won’t be as good as Yamazaki’s film, but also cost, at least, five times as much to produce.
The reviews for the film have been very good, and it’s so far grossed $64 million worldwide. It’s actually still in U.S. theaters. However, in Japan a black and white monochrome version, retitled “Godzilla-1.0/C,” will be released on January 12, 2024. Fangoria is now hinting that this monochrome version might also hit U.S. theaters early next year.
A trailer of this latest version has been released.
It does make sense to have a black and white version of this film — it’s indelibly old-school and takes place in the late ‘40s. The re-release isn't a cash grab either, but something Yamazaki has been working on for a while. Here’s his statement about this new version:
"We are now able to announce Godzilla-1.0/C, which we have been working on for a long time. Rather than just making it monochrome, it is a cut by cut, I had them make adjustments while making full use of various mattes, as if they were creating a new movie. What I was aiming for was a style that looked like it was taken by masters of monochrome photography. We were able to unearth the texture of the skin and the details of the scenery that were hidden in the photographed data. Then, a frightening Godzilla, just like the one in the documentary, appeared. By eliminating color, a new sense of reality emerges. Please live and resist further fear at the theater." - Takashi Yamazaki
“Godzilla Minus One” takes place in a devastated post-war Japan where Godzilla goes on a rampage. This is the second of the live-action Reiwa era ‘Godzilla’ films, the first being 2016’s “Shin Godzilla”. Yamazaki has made one of the better films of the franchise.
“Hope,” Na’s first film in ten years — his last one being the exemplary “The Wailing” —is a gloriously messy, blood-soaked sci-fi epic that may become a cult classic despite—or because of—its polarizing nature.